Skip to content
mannafest.faith

Hebrew noun (feminine) · H4541

מַסֵּכָה

massekahmas-say-kaw'

liquid; veil

28 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key

Concordance spelling: maççêkâh

Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H4541is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.

  • 14 of 39
    Old Testament books
  • 19
    spellings
  • 2
    meanings

The definition in full

Strong's key (1890) · H4541

properly, a pouring over, i.e. fusion of metal (especially a cast image); by implication, a libation, i.e. league; concretely a coverlet (as if poured out)

The King James renders it: covering, molten (image), vail.

James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.

Summary

massekah is rendered "liquid; veil". It stands 28 times in the Hebrew text, across fourteen books.

  • Five of the uses stand in Judges, more than in any other book.
  • The lexicon lists two meanings for it, beginning with "liquid".
  • Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Exodus 32:4He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
  • The Greek text spells it nineteen different ways.

The first use

He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Exodus 32:4מַסֵּכָ֑ה

The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.

Where the word stands

The word stands in fourteen of the 39 Old Testament books.

The other 25 Old Testament books never use the word.

What the word means

The word carries two meanings: liquid, and veil.

Each meaning, and the words it is translated by

The English STEP Bible gives each use, word by word, and how many times.
liquidStrong's entry ATagged aslisted under the tableWhereExodus 32:4He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten…
veilStrong's entry BTagged aslisted under the tableWherein the ledger below

How the Greek text is glossed, word by word

  • molten metal6
  • a molten image4
  • and a molten image4
  • and the molten images2
  • the molten image2
  • to a molten image2
  • a libation1
  • and molten image1
  • and molten images1
  • and the blanket1
  • and the woven stuff1
  • molten image of1

and 2 more, 28 uses in all

The words built on the same word-part

Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.

The words it stands beside

All 28, in canonical order

Every use, in order

Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.

19 spellings and their grammar

STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.

How it is spelled

  • מַסֵּכָ֖ה4
  • מַסֵּכָ֑ה3
  • הַמַּסֵּכָ֑ה2
  • וְהַמַּסֵּכָ֥ה2
  • וּמַסֵּכָ֔ה2
  • מַסֵּכָ֔ה2
  • וְהַמַּסֵּכוֹת֙1
  • וְהַמַּסֵּכֽוֹת׃1
  • וּמַסֵּכָ֜ה1
  • וּמַסֵּכָ֑ה1
  • וּמַסֵּכָ֛ה1
  • וּמַסֵּכוֹת֙1

and 7 more spellings in the ledger below.

The grammar of each form

  • noun · feminine singular10HNcfsa
  • conjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singular5HC/Ncfsa
  • conjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine plural2HC/Td/Ncfpa
  • conjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine singular2HC/Td/Ncfsa
  • preposition + noun · feminine singular2HR/Ncfsa
  • the definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine singular2HTd/Ncfsa
  • conjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine plural1HC/Ncfpa
  • noun · feminine dual1HNcfda
  • noun · feminine plural1HNcfpa
  • noun · feminine plural · in construct (“…of”) + pronoun suffix · 3rd person masculine plural1HNcfpc/Sp3mp
  • noun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)1HNcfsc

Exodus

three uses
  • He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

    Exodus 32:4

    • מַסֵּכָ֑הmasekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: molten metal
  • How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

    Exodus 32:8

    • מַסֵּכָ֑הmasekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: molten metal
  • You shall make no molten gods for yourselves.

    Exodus 34:17

    • מַסֵּכָ֖הmasekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: molten metal

Leviticus

one use
  • Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the LORD your God.

    Leviticus 19:4

    • מַסֵּכָ֔הmasekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: molten metal

Numbers

one use
  • you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.

    Numbers 33:52

    • מַסֵּֽכֹתָם֙masekhotamnoun · feminine plural · in construct (“…of”) + pronoun suffix · 3rd person masculine pluraltagged: molten metal their

Deuteronomy

three uses
  • And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”

    Deuteronomy 9:12

    • מַסֵּכָֽה׃masekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: a molten image
  • And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

    Deuteronomy 9:16

    • מַסֵּכָ֑הmasekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: molten metal
  • ‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

    Deuteronomy 27:15

    • וּמַסֵּכָ֜הumasekhahconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: and a molten image

Judges

five uses
  • And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.”

    Judges 17:3

    • וּמַסֵּכָ֔הumasekhahconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: and a molten image
  • So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten idol. And they were placed in the house of Micah.

    Judges 17:4

    • וּמַסֵּכָ֔הumasekhahconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: and a molten image
  • Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that one of these houses has an ephod, household gods, a graven image, and a molten idol? Now think about what you should do.”

    Judges 18:14

    • וּמַסֵּכָ֑הumasekhahconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: and a molten image
  • And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went inside and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred armed men.

    Judges 18:17

    • הַמַּסֵּכָ֑הhamasekhahthe definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: the molten image
  • When they entered Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

    Judges 18:18

    • הַמַּסֵּכָ֑הhamasekhahthe definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: the molten image

1 Kings

one use
  • You have done more evil than all who came before you. You have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me, and you have flung Me behind your back.

    1 Kings 14:9

    • וּמַסֵּכוֹת֙umasekhotconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine pluraltagged: and molten images

2 Kings

one use
  • They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal.

    2 Kings 17:16

    • מַסֵּכָ֖הmasekhahnoun · feminine dualtagged: a molten image

2 Chronicles

three uses
  • Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even made cast images of the Baals.

    2 Chronicles 28:2

    • מַסֵּכ֛וֹתmasekhotnoun · feminine pluraltagged: molten images
  • In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images.

    2 Chronicles 34:3

    • וְהַמַּסֵּכֽוֹת׃vehammasekhotconjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine pluraltagged: and the molten images
  • Then in his presence the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images, crushed them to dust, and scattered them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

    2 Chronicles 34:4

    • וְהַמַּסֵּכוֹת֙vehammasekhotconjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine pluraltagged: and the molten images

Nehemiah

one use
  • Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies,

    Nehemiah 9:18

    • מַסֵּכָ֔הmasekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: molten metal

Psalms

one use
  • At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.

    Psalms 106:19

    • לְמַסֵּכָֽה׃lemasekhahpreposition + noun · feminine singulartagged: to a molten image

Isaiah

five uses
  • On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;

    Isaiah 25:7

    • וְהַמַּסֵּכָ֥הvehammasekhahconjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: and the woven stuff
  • Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too small to wrap around you.

    Isaiah 28:20

    • וְהַמַּסֵּכָ֥הvehammasekhahconjunction (“and”) + the definite article (“the”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: and the blanket
  • “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.

    Isaiah 30:1

    • מַסֵּכָ֖הmasekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: a libation
  • So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

    Isaiah 30:22

    • מַסֵּכַ֣תmasekhatnoun · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: molten image of
  • But those who trust in idols and say to molten images, ‘You are our gods!’ will be turned back in utter shame.

    Isaiah 42:17

    • לְמַסֵּכָ֖הlemasekhahpreposition + noun · feminine singulartagged: to a molten image

Hosea

one use
  • Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”

    Hosea 13:2

    • מַסֵּכָ֨הmasekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: a molten image

Nahum

one use
  • The LORD has issued a command concerning you, O Nineveh: “There will be no descendants to carry on your name. I will cut off the carved image and cast idol from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.”

    Nahum 1:14

    • וּמַסֵּכָ֛הumasekhahconjunction (“and”) + noun · feminine singulartagged: and molten image

Habakkuk

one use
  • What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

    Habakkuk 2:18

    • מַסֵּכָ֖הmasekhahnoun · feminine singulartagged: a molten image

The letters

Where it leads

How the numbers are counted

Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.

Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.

The words it stands beside are the nouns, verbs and adjectives immediately before or after it, counted in every verse where the word stands. The article, the conjunctions and the prepositions are left out, because they stand beside every word.

Hebrew and Greek text, word tagging and grammar: STEP Bible (www.STEPBible.org), Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0. Their grammar codes are written out in English here and shown as tagged beside each one.

Meaning and senses: STEP Bible TBESH gloss (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary key: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890, public domain). English verse text: Berean Standard Bible (public domain, 2023).

Revised 2026-09-05. Every cited work, the sources registry →